1951~1969: The Formation of the Caribbean Consolidated School, Inc.

The history behind CPS and the role played by a group of dedicated parents and their families is interesting and meritorious. Back in 1951, several families relocated in Puerto Rico to work with the Economic Development Administration (Fomento). The main obstacle these parents had was the lack of schools in English for their children to attend. Faced with this situation, they began looking for physical facilities and to study the requirements needed to create an English academic school that would fulfill their necessities, their urgency, and their demand for excellence in education.

They rented a “Community Center” located in the Roosevelt Urbanization in Hato Rey, where Commonwealth Middle and High School are located today. This building consisted of an auditorium, which was divided into small classrooms to accommodate students from Kindergarten through sixth grade. The school began with 92 students, eight teachers, and eight classrooms. Every year a new grade was added until 1961, when Commonwealth School graduated its first twelfth grade class of 10 students.

Parallel to the history of the foundation of Commonwealth High School in 1952 is the history of the San Juan School by the Sea. These two schools instituted a new educational system in the history of education in Puerto Rico.

Seven parents started the San Juan by the Sea Elementary School. It consisted of a kindergarten and the first elementary grades situated in a rented apartment in the Condado. Later, the school moved to a property in Punta Las Marias, which at the time was owned by the U.S. Army and had been used during World War II. San Juan School was able to extend from kindergarten through sixth grade.

In 1964, Commonwealth was full to capacity and grades kindergarten through twelfth needed more classrooms to accommodate all students. It was then when a structure in the Parkville neighborhood of Guaynabo was purchased and named Parkville School.  It served as the elementary campus providing space for an additional two hundred students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Commonwealth Elementary School students were moved to Parkville School.

The three schools, Commonwealth, San Juan by the Sea and Parkville, constituted the Caribbean Consolidated School system, incorporated in 1964, with an academic program of instruction from kindergarten through twelfth grade. CPS was first accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 1962.